


Travel, Trauma, and the Associated Dangers of Being The Hero

by UbiquitousSpontaneities



Series: There's a (few) new Link(s) in this chain! [1]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), and like he did 5 whole adventures?, idk i just wanted more legend fic, not enough people talk about lttp for him, wth hylia let him chill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-07 07:28:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19204717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UbiquitousSpontaneities/pseuds/UbiquitousSpontaneities
Summary: They'd thought this would be easy, as it had been for most of the group.Just pop in, explain the little knowledge they did have about the world-hopping and unnaturally strong monsters, then pop out with a newly recruited hero and return to their attempts to get to the bottom of the unusual situation.They didn't expect the Hero of Legend to be so opposed.





	Travel, Trauma, and the Associated Dangers of Being The Hero

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo this is my first actually decent fic I've posted, so have fun. 
> 
> (Legend's characterization is slightly inspired by Lore from [ChangelingRin's](/users/ChangelingRin/) [Dimensional Links](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11122717/1/Dimensional-Links), read it on Fanfiction.net it's hella good, that's also where the other languages come from, he's the only one who's been to an actual other country, why not have fun with it?)
> 
> If it doesn't make sense in the story, the only person who hasn't joined the group is Time, I'll explain it in at the end notes.

“No.”

“I-I’m sorry, what?” Sky stuttered, whipping back around to face the disheveled man. The Hero shifted in his doorway, continuing to block the group from looking or entering the dimly-lit room. It was understandable, the majority of them had unsurprisingly developed an overly skeptical view of random strangers. Especially ones as heavily armed as them. 

“I said no. I’m not doing this _again_.“ Sky stepped back in shock. Since he had been the first to begin the weird world-jumping adventure, and the fact that the group was generally rather intimidating to most people (as they learned when Wind had almost stabbed Twilight out of instinct), it had made sense at the time to have him be the one to explain the situation. They had thought this would simple, just drop in, explain the situation, and convince the new Hero to come. It had worked so far, the only hiccups being the extra week spent trying to find Wild (Hyrule was especially surprised by the sheer magnitude of his version of the kingdom) and the aforementioned instincts of the resident pirate.

“What, you’re too good for this? You _are_ Link, right? How can you just leave the world- the _universe_ in danger?” Warriors said, the man’s pained face quickly becoming closed off at the accusation.

“Ig, di’e rg’w id Hylia,” the man muttered to himself, the language shift drawing strange looks from the group. “Look, I get it. You’re all the Hero, fine, I’ll accept it. But I’m just supposed to drop everything and do this all _again_?”

“Dude, we get it, it’s hard work, but it’s your duty-“

“NO.” Twilight looked startled at the man, who had now stepped out of the doorway to thrust his finger into the taller man’s face, cutting him off mid-sentence. “You know how many fucking times I’ve had to do this? _Five!_ Link! Save Hyrule! Link! Save Holodrum! Link! Save Labrynna! Save a fissl'nb _flying whale_ and k-“ The man choked up before continuing. “Link! Who cares about your trauma, save Lorule! I’m _done_ with this shit. I get it, I really do, it’s important. But,” he looked guilty as he glanced around the group, “there’s, what, seven of you? I-“

Interrupting the man with an excited gasp, Hyrule said, “Holy Hylia—you’re the Hero of Legend! _That’s_ why this all looked so familiar! I’m the hero after you!” 

As Hyrule’s uncharacteristic ramblings continued, the guilty look on the man’s face grew in tandem. The realization that despite all of the work he went through, all of the stress and trauma — well, it didn’t surprise him, per se, but it did disappoint him that another had to go through all of that as well. Especially so young...

The amount of children in the group, not that he himself was much older, shocked him. Saddened him.

But... didn’t he deserve at least some time to himself? Didn’t they all deserve a chance to be normal people and /not/ constantly fear for their lives? After all this time, all this loss?

Despite all these thoughts, he knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he actually turned them down. It was hard enough convincing himself to let go of the constant anxiety of being on a quest after each adventure, he knew he couldn’t bare to do that knowing that the people before him were putting themselves in such danger, even if their explanation made no sense. He knew that if he didn’t go with them now, he would regret it every day after. 

And so, he conceded.

“Nevermind, I’m coming.”

\---

Seven pairs of eyes turned to him, his admission cutting off Hyrule, who had now launched into trying to convince him. 

“Just... let me pack I guess.” He disappeared into the house, finally closing the door he had been inching shut ever since the group had knocked. Twilight shot Sky a look, clearly uncomfortable with the manipulative feel of the situation. Sure, he was a Hero, but... shouldn’t they still get a choice? Twilight was aware of the differing opinions of the goddess held by the group, but the Hero in front of them couldn’t have been much older than half the people in their group, and appeared to have done more than twice as much in terms of outright adventuring than any of them on their own. And while none of them were strangers to loss...

The slamming door drew the group’s attention back to the house, shocking Twilight of of his thought. The Hero stood there for a second, heavily burdened with a large pack. He had swapped his green tunic out for a red-and-black one, and his fingers worried a set of three pendants strung on a ribbon around his neck. Evidently uncomfortable with the amount of emotion in his previous outburst, his voice was gruff as he locked the door. 

“So, do you all have a plan or?” He trailed off as he looked about the group expectantly. As soon as Sky moved to explain the irrational, uncontrollable shifting between worlds every few days, their surroundings did just that and left the group stranded in yet another ambiguous forest. “Well, I guess that clears up the question of where to go…” he muttered, turning back to the group before asking, “Do you all have nicknames, or am I just supposed to keep calling you some variation of ‘Hey, you?’”

“Oh, right, introductions,” Sky said. “Sorry, usually we do this in a different order so… Anyway, I’m the Chosen Hero, I go by Sky due to the fact that I live there? We’re pretty sure I’m the first Hero, since almost everyone else has some sort of legend of me but I have none. So… Yeah, hi. I’m Sky.” He looked away from the group sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“I’m Hyrule.” Hyrule seemed embarrassed by his earlier enthusiasm, but still seemed to be in awe of the Hero in front of him. “As in, the Hero of Hyrule.”

“And I’m Warriors, the Captain of the Knights’ Guard-” Warriors began before being cut off by a scoff from the newcomer.

“Yeah, I recognize a soldier when I see one, tell me if you feel any mind control coming on. And just so you know, I did not kidnap the princess, thank you very much.” The man kicked at the floor before glancing to the rest of the group. “And you?”

Warriors looked shocked, sputtering out an indignant, “Excuse me!?” before Four stepped in to diffuse the situation.

“Call me Four, I’m the Hero of Light, the Four Sword, Mi- Men, take your pick,” they said. 

“I’m the Hero of the Winds! Is that a fire rod? I thought Four was the only one who had one of those!” At the boy’s excitement, the man put a protective hand over the various things - was that a mirror? And a hammer? - hung at his belt. The fact that he didn’t fall over where he stood was wonder, thought Twilight, what with how much stuff he seemed to have stuffed in every pocket of his pack. 

“They call me Twilight, and that’s Wild,” he said, motioning over towards the blue-clad hero, currently attempting to spark a fire in the center of the conveniently sized clearing. 

“Hmm.” The man looked thoughtful, before turning around to sling his pack back off his shoulder and rummage through it. Still turned away from the group, he said, “Well, is appears as though you already know my title, so…” He turned, hands splayed out in a sarcastic greeting.

“Call me Legend.”

**Author's Note:**

> The way the group is meeting up in this is like the two ends of the timeline meeting, and then Time at the end because he's responsible for the timeline split. Its not exact, but that's the general idea.
> 
> Holodese translations:  
> "Ig, di’e rg’w id Hylia," - ”Oh, for the love of Hylia"  
> "fisslnb" - "Goddamn"


End file.
